Hey! I’m Ryley. I’m the owner of Curate Interior Design. I’ve been in the interior design industry for over ten years and had Curate for 6. Man, that is wild to think about.

I started a rebrand journey about a year ago and it has truly been a journey. I wanted to share a little bit about it for a few different reasons:

-I think it could be relatable to anyone who owns a business and has invested time and money into elevating and developing it.

-It gave me profound insight as to what it might be like for someone to work with a designer who hasn’t done so before.

-As well as the parallels between different design industries but also the differences. I am an interior designer but brand, web and graphic design are actually a whole different thing completely and I am so grateful that I had someone to assist and guide me through the process.

PART 1:
When I started Curate I did everything myself, the website, the branding, the business planning (or lack there of!) and that was all great and a fun learning curve at the time, but with this new evolution I wanted my business to represent the elevated nature of the services I provide at Curate. And it also just felt like it was just time for a re-fresh and I felt in order to achieve this elevated level I was after, it would be wise to enlist an expert.

As excited as I was for this, it did not go as planned. I had this grand vision for how this was going to go and it just did not happen that way. I am sharing this as I think this is a relatable story for anyone who decides to enlist expertise personally or professionally. It’s hard to know sometimes if someone will help us in the way we want. I think a good reminder is to really listen to your intuition, know what you need but also do a lot research and ask for referrals.

Sometimes hiring people can feel scary because we don’t know what to expect, it is a big investment and you potentially have a lot on the line whether that is time, money or just expectations.

I ended up working with two different companies that just didn’t work out which was something I hadn’t experienced before. I had to let both of them go. And believe me this was also not an easy task as this was something I’ve never had to do before. It was a big deal as almost an entire year had gone by working with two different companies and I had expected to be finished the re-branding process by this point and now had to start from square one. I was stressed, confused and really just not sure what to do.

BUT – After navigating myself out of those situations, I FINALLY found my people.

I don’t think that is always the case when you decide to hire someone, and I am of the belief that things happen for a reason, most of the time to learn something. Perhaps that was the journey I needed to go on in order to find the right people, meet others that I was not expecting along the way and arrive in a different place, again that was not expected.

One of the reasons this journey felt like it was “necessary” is because when I initially decided to rebrand, I thought it was going to be all about picking new brand colours, fonts, logos… all those pretty and fun things that you would expect. And it was that, but it was also much deeper, and I think that was the work that I needed to do. I re-discovered why I am an interior designer, who I want to help and why I want to help them. And I got clear on exactly how I am going to do that moving forward. This resonated a lot as I think this is why we are all here. To help people in some way, shape or form. And I am helping people create the vision they have for their spaces which in turn profoundly effects how their everyday life and how they see themselves.

Another positive element that came out of the experience is the perspective I gained on the importance of collaboration and asking for help when we feel unclear or overwhelmed. We can’t do everything ourselves and often more brains is better than one. I feel like that sounds cheesy and cliché, but I found it to be really true. I am so grateful for the team of people behind the Curate rebrand and definitely could not have done it without them.

PART 2:
Working with other creatives and designers also gave me insight as to what my clients might feel like they hire me or another creative. In fact, there were quite a few similarities between these design industries that I noticed. Even though these are different types of design, these were something of things I really feel other creatives help you with in a creative process and why it can be so pivotal and important.

Hiring a designer helps you to:
-Gain clarity on what you need
-Define your style
-Make decisions and help to guide you from the beginning of the project to the end (decision fatigue is a real thing!)

-Educate you on the design process and things about the industry you didn’t know
-Provide overall general support, so you don’t feel like you are going through a large project completely on your own
-Have someone to bounce your own ideas off of.
-And perhaps most importantly – just makes you feel supported as you go through the type of project you are working on. (I think this one is priceless).

There are more things on the list, but these were some of the core elements that were incredibly valuable to me. With that being said, clarity was probably the biggest one. And I think designers (of all different kinds) bring huge amounts of clarity to the table when you bring one in on your project – whatever it may be.

What all of this really ads up to is also getting clear on who you really are, what you like and don’t like, how you want to feel and coming out of the process feeling confident. And I relate this to interior design, brand design, wardrobe styling, hair design, and so on. It applies to so many things.

In the end I am ecstatic about this new evolution of Curate and I can’t wait to help all of you develop and design spaces that truly reflect who you are and make you feel expansive and inspired.

Below are some of the elements from the re-brand and I think they are stunning.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you re reading this then that means that the website is live and in my humble opinion, I think it is freaking stunning. If you know anyone who you think benefit from some interior design support, I would love for you to share this platform with them if you feel called to do so.

To wrap this up, I just want to thank everyone who has helped me on this journey and I can’t wait to keep helping other people the way that I received help from my designer and team of people. I am linking them below as I cannot say enough good things about all these people.

The Team:

–Jad Murray | Brand + Web Designer

–Leah Gourd | Business Coach

–Jennie Alexis | Copy Writer

–Britt Gill | Photographer

If you ever have questions about the rebranding process, working creatively with others or of course about interior design and the ways in which we can work together, I am always here and look forward to chatting.

Ryley